You

There are many, many versions of Gong. One 1977 Paris concert featured no less than eight iterations, offshoots and offspring of Gong — the climactic set of which is immortalised on the incredible Gong est Mort - Vive Gong — and Gong as such continues to play into the 2020s with no remaining original members but the original spirit incredibly still intact. Even in the period 1972-75 when they were making and touring the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy of albums that represent the most “classic” Gong, they went through some 15 lineups. However somehow, among all this, there IS an essence of Gong, and if there’s one studio recording that captures it it’s this, the third Radio Gnome Invisible album. It exists exactly on the cusp between the jazz / Canterbury scene whimsy of the early days, and the intense space rock that came with Steve Hillage‘s increasing influence. Indeed the album’s progression through light and floating first couple of tracks with witchy incantations by Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth into the monumental “Master Builder” (aka “Om Riff” or “The Glorious Om Riff”, as covered many times by Acid Mothers Temple) and “A Sprinkling of Clouds” perfectly illustrates that development in microcosm, and the climactic “You Never Blow yr Trip for Ever” combines the two tendencies with alchemical force. It also features the band at their very funkiest (they have, after all been repeatedly sampled by no less than Madlib), on “The Isle of Everywhere”, and synth work throughout that feels eerily like you’re in an early 90s techno backroom. Beyond Canterbury, beyond prog, this album really does exist in a galaxy of its own.